Method and system of communicating personal health data in a near field communication environment

ABSTRACT

A method and a system for communicating personal health data in a Near Field Communication (NFC) environment are provided. An NFC manager sets control information in an NFC Data Exchange Format (NDEF) for providing synchronized communication of personal health data between the NFC manager and an NFC agent. The control information may include a direction flag, a state flag, sequence identifier field, and request/response flag. The NFC manager writes the NDEF format including the control information and payload data into an NFC tag associated with the NFC agent. Subsequently, the NFC manager reads the NDEF record stored in the NFC tag and determines whether the NDEF record is written into the NFC tag by the NFC agent based on the control information in the read NDEF format. Accordingly, the NFC manager repeats the above mentioned steps if the NDEF record includes payload data of the NFC agent.

PRIORITY

This application is a divisional application of prior application Ser.No. 14/228,923, filed on Mar. 28, 2014 application, which is acontinuation of prior application Ser. No. 13/881,661 which is aNational Stage application under 35 U.S.C. §371 of an Internationalapplication filed on Oct. 25, 2011 and assigned application No.PCT/KR2011/007981, which claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §365(b) ofan Indian patent application filed on Oct. 25, 2010 in the IndianIntellectual Property Office and assigned Serial No. 3173/CHE/2010, theentire disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to the field of near field communicationsystem. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method andsystem of communicating personal health data in a near fieldcommunication environment.

2. Description of the Related Art

Near Field Communication (NFC) is used in devices for communicating withother devices in a network range of less than 10 cm. Typically, in anNFC system, user applications can read or write information from or toNFC tags. NFC tags are static in nature and do not have capabilities fordynamically processing of data stored in it. Generally, NFC tags arepowered by a radio frequency field generated by an active NFC device andare able to respond to requests from the active NFC device.

A standard developed by the International Organization forStandardization (ISO) and the Institute of Electrical and ElectronicsEngineers (IEEE) referred to as ISO/IEEE 11073 enables communicationbetween medical devices and external systems. Personal health devicesthat are complaint with ISO/IEEE 11073 standards can communicate witheach other using the ISO/IEEE 11073-20601 communication protocol. TheISO/IEEE 11073 standard defines an ‘agent’ as a node that collects andtransmits personal health data to an associated NFC manager and‘manager’ as a node that receives personal health data from one or moreagents. Exemplary managers include a cell phone, a health appliance, aset top box, a personal computer system and the like. The ISO/IEEE11073-20601 standard defines the communication protocol between the NFCagent and the NFC manager.

Typically, an NFC manager (i.e., ISO/IEEE 11073 manager with an NFCRead/Write Interface) and an NFC agent (i.e., ISO/IEEE 11073 agent withan NFC tag) communicate in an NFC reader/writer mode using an NFC DataExchange Format (NDEF) message. The NDEF message can be any one of type,text, a Uniform Resource Indicator (URI), an image, a MultipurposeInternet Mail Extensions (MIME) type, etc. In the NFC reader/writercommunication mode, NDEF messages are exchanged between the NFC managerand the NFC agent using the tag transport protocols.

Generally, the NFC agent and NFC manager exchange a sequence of ISO/IEEE11073-20601 Application Protocol Data Units (APDUs) for association,configuration and exchanging of measurement data. This involves seriesof request and response exchanges between the NFC agent and the NFCmanager.

Usually, when an NFC manager writes a request into an NFC tag residingin an NFC agent, the NFC agent reads the request stored in the NFC tagand writes a response to the request into the NFC tag. The NFC managerreads the response written by the NFC agent from the NFC tag. However,in the event that the NFC agent delays the reading of the request fromthe NFC tag, the NFC manager reads the request written by itself andconsiders the request as a response from the NFC agent due to thelimited capabilities of the NFC tag, leading to connection setup latencyand communication overhead.

The above information is presented as background information only toassist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determinationhas been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the abovemight be applicable as prior art with regard to the present invention.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Aspects of the present invention are to address at least theabove-mentioned problems and/or disadvantages and to provide at leastthe advantages described below. Accordingly, an aspect of the presentinvention is to provide a method and system for communicating personalhealth data in a Near Field Communication (NFC) environment.

In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, a method ofcommunicating personal health data in an NFC environment is provided.The method includes setting control information in an NFC Data ExchangeFormat (NDEF) record by a first NFC device to synchronize communicationbetween the first NFC device and a second NFC device in the NFCenvironment, wherein the control information includes at least one of adirection flag, a request/response type flag, a state flag and asequence identifier field, and writing the NDEF record containing thecontrol information into an NFC tag.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, an apparatusfor communicating personal health data in an NFC environment isprovided. The apparatus includes a processor, and memory coupled to theprocessor, wherein the memory comprises a read/write module configuredfor setting control information in an NFC Data Exchange Format (NDEF)record, wherein the control information includes a direction flag, arequest/response type flag, a state flag and a sequence identifierfield, and writing the NDEF record containing the control informationinto an NFC tag.

The present invention is to provide a method and system forcommunicating personal health data in an NFC environment.

Other aspects, advantages, and salient features of the invention willbecome apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detaileddescription, which, taken in conjunction with the annexed drawings,discloses exemplary embodiments of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The above and other aspects, features, and advantages of certainexemplary embodiments of the present invention will be more apparentfrom the following description taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a Near Field Communication (NFC) systemenabling communication of personal health data between an NFC managerand an NFC agent according to an exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a method of reading/writing NFC DataExchange Format (NDEF) record into the NFC tag according to an exemplaryembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3A is a schematic representation of an NDEF record according to anexemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3B is a schematic representation of a payload field in the NDEFrecord according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic representation of a payload field in the NDEFrecord according to another exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 5 illustrates a block diagram of the NFC manager according to anexemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram of the NFC agent according to anexemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Throughout the drawings, it should be noted that like reference numbersare used to depict the same or similar elements, features, andstructures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

The following description with reference to the accompanying drawings isprovided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of exemplaryembodiments of the invention as defined by the claims and theirequivalents. It includes various specific details to assist in thatunderstanding but these are to be regarded as merely exemplary.Accordingly, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize thatvarious changes and modifications of the embodiments described hereincan be made without departing from the scope and spirit of theinvention. In addition, descriptions of well-known functions andconstructions may be omitted for clarity and conciseness.

The terms and words used in the following description and claims are notlimited to the bibliographical meanings, but, are merely used by theinventor to enable a clear and consistent understanding of theinvention. Accordingly, it should be apparent to those skilled in theart that the following description of exemplary embodiments of thepresent invention is provided for illustration purpose only and not forthe purpose of limiting the invention as defined by the appended claimsand their equivalents.

It is to be understood that the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the”include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.Thus, for example, reference to “a component surface” includes referenceto one or more of such surfaces.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram 100 of a Near Field Communication (NFC) systemfor enabling communication of personal health data between an NFCmanager and an NFC agent according to an exemplary embodiment of presentinvention.

Referring to FIG. 1, the NFC system 100 includes an NFC manager 102having an NFC read/write module 104, and an NFC agent 106 with an NFCtag 108 and an NFC read/write module 110. The NFC manager 102 may be adevice (e.g., a cell phone, a tablet, a smart phone, a personal digitalassistant, a set-top box, a personal computer, and the like) capable ofcommunicating with the NFC agent 106. The NFC agent 106 is a devicecapable of collecting personal health data and communicating thepersonal health data with the NFC manager 102 via the NFC tag 108. TheNFC manager 102 and the NFC agent 106 writes and/or reads data in theNFC tag 108 using a standard developed International Organization forStandardization (ISO) and Institute of Electrical and ElectronicsEngineers (IEEE) referred to as the ISO/IEEE 11073-20601 communicationprotocol.

For communicating personal health data, the NFC manager 102 and the NFCagent 106 exchange a series of request/response messages via the NFC tag108. In an exemplary operation, the NFC manager 102 sets controlinformation in a NFC Data Exchange Format (NDEF) record. The NDEF recordmay contain a header and a payload field. The payload field includescontrol information and/or other payload data. It is noted that thecontrol information can be encoded in other fields of the NDEF recordother than the payload field. The control information may include adirection flag, a state flag, a request/response flag, and a sequenceidentifier field. The direction flag indicates a direction ofcommunication of the NDEF record. The state flag indicates a state ofcommunication of the NFC manager 102 or the NFC agent 106. Therequest/response flag indicates whether the NDEF record carries anISO/IEEE 11073-20601 protocol request command or an ISO/IEEE 11073-20601protocol response command. The sequence identifier field indicates asequence identifier of NDEF records exchanged between the NFC manager102 and the NFC agent 106. According to the exemplary embodiment, thecontrol information is set in the NDEF record to provide synchronizedcommunication between the NFC manager 102 and the NFC agent 106 toefficiently obtain personal health data from the NFC agent 106. Upon thesetting of the control information, the NFC read/write module 104 of theNFC manager 102 writes the NDEF record containing the controlinformation and/or other payload data into the NFC tag 108.

Subsequently, the NFC read/write module 110 of the NFC agent 106 readsthe NDEF record stored in the NFC tag 108. The NFC read/write module 110retrieves the control information from the NDEF record and determines adirection of the communication, a request/response command, acommunication state, and a sequence identifier based on the directionflag, a request/response flag, a state flag, and a sequence identifierfield. In the above case, the direction flag indicates if the directionof communication is from the NFC manger 102 to the NFC agent 106 orvice-versa. The request/response flag indicates if the NDEF recordcarries the request command in the payload field. The state flagindicates the communication state of the NFC manager when the NDEFrecord is written in the NFC tag 108. The sequence identifier fieldindicates the sequence identifier allocated to the NDEF record by theNFC agent. Accordingly, the NFC read/write module 110 updates thecontrol information (i.e., the direction flag, the sequence identifier,the state flag and the request/response flag) in the NDEF record andencodes payload data in the payload field of the NDEF record. Then, theNFC read/write module 110 writes the NDEF record into the NFC tag 108.

At substantially the same time, the NFC read/write module 104 of the NFCmanager 102 reads the NDEF record containing the control information andother payload data from the NFC tag 108. The NFC read/write module 104then retrieves the control information from the NDEF record anddetermines a direction of the communication, a request/response command,a communication state, and a sequence identifier based on the directionflag, the request/response flag, the state flag, and the sequenceidentifier field. Accordingly, the NFC read/write module 104 determineswhether the NDEF record read from the NFC tag 108 is same as theprevious NDEF record written into the NFC tag 108 based on the controlinformation in the read NDEF record. For example, if the direction flagindicates the direction of communication as from the NFC manager 102 tothe NFC agent 106 and the request/response flag indicates that the NDEFrecords contain the request command, then the NFC read/write module 104identifies that the NDEF record is the same NDEF record previouslywritten by the NFC manager 102 and is not the NDEF record received fromthe NFC agent 106. In such a scenario, the read/write module 104 mayignore the read NDEF record and continue reading the NFC tag 108 after atime interval. That is, the NDEF record read by the NFC read/writemodule 104 is the same as the previously written NDEF record and theNDEF record written into the NFC tag 108 is not yet read by the NFCagent 106 or the NFC read/write module 104 has read the NFC tag 108prior to writing the NDEF record by the NFC agent 106. In such a case,the control information in the NDEF record enables the NFC manager 102to determine the identity of the NDEF record.

If the NFC read/write module 104 determines that the NDEF recordcontains payload data previously received from the NFC agent 106, thenthe NFC read/write module 104 processes the payload data and encodes newcontrol information and different payload data in an NDEF record. Then,the NFC read/write module 104 writes the NDEF record with the newcontrol information and different payload data in the NFC tag 108. Theabove process continues until personal health data is communicated tothe NFC manager 102 by the NFC agent 106 in the payload field of one ofthe NDEF records exchanged between the NFC manager 102 and the NFC agent106.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a method of reading/writing NFC DataExchange Format (NDEF) record into the NFC tag according to an exemplaryembodiment of present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2 of the flowchart 200, at step 202, an NDEF recordcontaining the control information and payload data is read from the NFCtag 108. As described above, the control information includes adirection flag, a state flag, a request/response flag, and a sequenceidentifier field. At step 204, it is determined whether the NDEF recordin the NFC tag 108 is written by the NFC agent 106 based on the controlinformation. If the NDEF record is written by the NFC agent 106, then atstep 206, the payload data in the read NDEF record is processed and newcontrol information and payload data (e.g., ISO/IEEE 11073-20601 data)is encoded in the payload field of a new NDEF record. At step 208, thenew NDEF record containing the control information and the payload iswritten into the NFC tag 108. Steps 202-208 are repeated until acomplete ISO/IEEE 11073 personal health data payload is received fromthe NFC agent 106. Referring back to step 204, if the NDEF record iswritten by the NFC manager 102, then the NDEF record is ignored and theNFC tag 108 is read again after a time to obtain another NDEF record.One skilled in the art will realize that the above steps 202-208 canalso be implemented at the NFC agent 106.

FIG. 3A is a schematic representation of an NDEF record according to anexemplary embodiment of present invention.

The NFC record 300 includes a payload field 302. The payload field 302includes control information associated with the NDEF record and otherpayload data. Alternatively, an ID field 304 includes controlinformation associated with the NDEF record. The NDEF record 300 can beexchanged between the NFC manager 102 and the NFC agent 106 in apeer-to-peer mode using a Simple NDEF Exchange Protocol (SNEP). Forexample, the NFC manager 102 acting as a SNEP client can exchange theNDEF record 300 with the NFC agent 106 acting as SNEP server. For this,the NFC manager 102 can use a SNEP request message with a PUT request tosend the NDEF record 300 to the NFC agent 106. The NFC agent 106 cansend a response NDEF record to the NFC manager 102 using a SNEP responsemessage with a PUT request. Alternatively, the NFC manager 102 can use aSNEP request message with a GET request.

FIG. 3B is a schematic representation of the payload field in the NDEFrecord, according to an exemplary embodiment of present invention.

The payload field 302 in the NDEF record 300 includes a control field352 and a data field 354. The control field 352 includes a directionflag field 356, a request/response flag field 358, a state flag field360, and a sequence identifier field 362. The direction flag field 356indicates a direction of communication of the NDEF record. For example,the direction flag field 356 includes a value ‘0’ if the NDEF record iswritten into the NFC tag 108 by the NFC agent 106. When the NDEF recordis written by the NFC manager 102, the direction flag field 356 includesa value ‘1’.

The request/response flag field 358 indicates whether the NDEF formatincludes an ISO/IEEE 11073-20601 communication protocol request commandor ISO/IEEE 11073-20601 communication protocol response command. Forexample, the request/response flag field 358 includes a value ‘0’ whenthe NDEF record corresponds to a request command and includes a value‘1’ when the NDEF record corresponds to a response command. The stateflag field 360 indicates a communication state of a sender of the NDEFrecord. The state flag field 360 helps determine the state of the NFCmanager 102 or the NFC agent 106 during a particular instance ofcommunication. Exemplary values of the state flag field 360 indicate aspecific state of the NFC manager 102 or the NFC agent 106 as shown inTable 1 below:

TABLE 1 0x00 DISCONNECTED 0x01 CONNECTED 0x02 UNASSOCIATED 0x03ASSOCIATING 0x04 ASSOCIATED 0x05 OPERATING 0x06 CONFIGURING 0x07DISASSOCIATING 0x08-0X3F RFU

For example, as shown in Table 1, the state flag field 360 may include avalue ‘0x00’ when the NFC agent 106 or the NFC manager 102 is in adisconnected state. When the NFC agent 106 or the NFC manager 102 is ina connected state, the state flag field 362 may include a value ‘0x01’.

The sequence identifier field 362 indicates a sequence identifierassigned to each NDEF record communicated between the NFC read/writemodule 104/110 and the NFC tag 108. In other words, the sequenceidentifier field 362 indicates the order in which the NDEF records arewritten into the NFC tag so that the NDEF records are not duplicated ormissed during communication between the NFC manager 102 and the NFCagent 106. The sequence identifier that is exchanged between the NFCmanager 102 and the NFC agent 106 can be a random number or a sequenceof numbers incremented by one.

The sequence identifier field 362 enables the controlling of the flow ofNDEF records exchanged between the NFC read/write module 104/110 and theNFC tag 108. The sequence identifier in the sequence identifier field362 provides reliability in communication between the NFC manager 102and the NFC agent 106. It is noted that the sequence field 362 can alsobe included in a header of the NDEF record. The data field 354 includesISO/IEEE 11073-20601 data exchanged between the NFC manager 102 and theNFC agent 106.

FIG. 4 is a schematic representation of the payload field of the NDEFrecord, according to another exemplary embodiment of present invention.

The payload field 302 is used for communicating measurement data (e.g.,physical health data). The payload field 302 encodes ISO/IEEE11073-20601 personal health information, thereby enablinginteroperability in exchanging ISO/IEEE 11073 personal health data. Thepayload field 302 reduces connection setup latency and communicationoverhead.

The payload field 302 includes a data proto-id field 402, a protocolversion field 404, an encoding rules field 406, a nomenclature versionfield 408, a system identifier length field 410, a system identifierfield 412, a config-report length field 414, a config-report data field416, a measurement data length field 418, and a measurement data field420.

The data proto-id field 402 indicates an identifier of a data exchangeprotocol. For example, the data proto-id field 402 includes a value ‘0’,‘20601’ and ‘65535’. The value ‘20601’ indicates that the ISO/IEEE11073-20601 protocol is used. The protocol version field 404 is a onebyte field indicating protocol identifier version used by the NFC agent106. For example, the 4 Most Significant Bits (MSB) indicate a majorrelease version and the 4 Least Significant Bits (LSB) indicate a minorrelease version. The encoding rules field 406 indicates specific dataApplication Protocol Data Units (APDU) encoding rule(s) that aresupported by the NFC agent 106. It is appreciated that, the NFC agent106 and the NFC manager 102 supports Medical Device Encoding Rules(MDER) and negotiates on other encoding rule(s) except MDER. Forexample, the encoding rules field 406 includes a value ‘0’ if MDER issupported, a value ‘1’ if eXtensible markup language Encoding Rules(XER) are supported, and a value ‘2’ if Packed Encoding Rules (PER) aresupported.

The nomenclature version field 408 indicates a version of nomenclatureused as defined in ISO/IEEE 11073-20601. For example, the MSB bit is setto a value ‘0’ if the nomenclature version 1 is used. The systemidentifier length field 410 indicates a length of the system identifierfield 412. The system identifier field 412 includes a unique systemidentifier of the NFC agent 106. The Extended Unique Identifier-64(EUI-64) format is used to identify the NFC agent 106. The systemidentifier field 412 enables the NFC manager 102 to determine theidentity of the NFC agent 106 and to implement a simple accessrestriction policy.

The config-report length field 414 indicates a length of theconfig-report data field 416. The config-report data field 416 carries aconfiguration event report of the NFC agent 106 starting with objecthandling bytes. The format of the config-report data field 416 issimilar to the configuration event report as specified in the ISO/IEEE11073-20601 specification. The measurement data length 418 indicates alength of the measurement data field 420. The measurement data field 420carries a measurement data report from the NFC agent 106 starting withobject handle bytes. The format of the measurement data field 420 issimilar to the measurement data report as specified in ISO/IEEE11073-20601 specification.

FIG. 5 illustrates a block diagram of the NFC manager according to anexemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 5, the NFC manager 102 includes a processor 502,memory 504, a Read Only Memory (ROM) 506, a communication interface 508,and a bus 510. The processor 502, as used herein, can be implemented byany type of computational circuit, such as, but not limited to, amicroprocessor, a microcontroller, a complex instruction set computingmicroprocessor, a reduced instruction set computing microprocessor, avery long instruction word microprocessor, an explicitly parallelinstruction computing microprocessor, a graphics processor, a digitalsignal processor, or any other type of suitable processing circuit. Theprocessor 502 may also include embedded controllers, such as generic orprogrammable logic devices or arrays, application specific integratedcircuits, single-chip computers, smart cards, and the like.

The memory 504 may be volatile memory and non-volatile memory. Thememory 504 includes the NFC read/write module 104 for reading and/orwriting NDEF records containing control information and other payloaddata from and/or to the NFC tag 108, according to an exemplaryembodiment of the present invention. The communication interface 508 maybe a radio frequency interface for enabling communication between theNFC Manager 102 and the NFC Agent 106 in a peer-to-peer mode, a readerand/or writer mode, and a card emulation mode. The bus 510 enablescommunication between the various components of the NFC manager 102illustrated therein.

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention may be implemented inconjunction with modules, including functions, procedures, datastructures, and application programs, for performing tasks, or definingdata types or low-level hardware contexts. Machine-readable instructionsstored on any of the above-mentioned storage media may be executable bythe processor 502. For example, a computer program may includemachine-readable instructions capable of reading and/or writing NDEFrecords containing control information and other payload data fromand/or to the NFC tag 108, according to the exemplary embodiment of thepresent invention. In an exemplary embodiment, the computer program maybe included on a storage medium and loaded from the storage medium to ahard drive in the non-volatile memory.

FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram of the NFC agent according to anexemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 6, the NFC agent 106 includes the NFC tag 108, aprocessor 602, memory 604, a ROM 606, a communication interface 608, anda bus 610. The processor 602, as used herein, can be implemented by anytype of computational circuit, such as, but not limited to, amicroprocessor, a microcontroller, a complex instruction set computingmicroprocessor, a reduced instruction set computing microprocessor, avery long instruction word microprocessor, an explicitly parallelinstruction computing microprocessor, a graphics processor, a digitalsignal processor, or any other suitable type of processing circuit. Theprocessor 602 may also include embedded controllers, such as generic orprogrammable logic devices or arrays, application specific integratedcircuits, single-chip computers, smart cards, and the like.

The memory 604 may be volatile memory and non-volatile memory. Thememory 604 includes the NFC read/write module 110 for reading and/orwriting NDEF records containing control information and other payloaddata from and/or to the NFC tag 108, according to an exemplaryembodiment of the present invention. The communication interface 608 maybe a radio frequency interface for enabling communication between theNFC manager 102 and the NFC agent 106 in a peer-to-peer mode, a readerand/or writer mode, and a card emulation mode. The bus 610 enablescommunication between the various components of the NFC agent 106illustrated therein.

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention may be implemented inconjunction with modules, including functions, procedures, datastructures, and application programs, for performing tasks, or definingdata types or low-level hardware contexts. Machine-readable instructionsstored on any of the above-mentioned storage media may be executable bythe processor 602. For example, a computer program may includemachine-readable instructions capable of reading and/or writing NDEFrecords containing control information and other payload data fromand/or to the NFC tag 108 and communicating the NDEF records stored inthe NFC tag into the NFC manger 102, according to the exemplaryembodiment of the present invention. In an exemplary embodiment, thecomputer program may be included on a storage medium and loaded from thestorage medium to a hard drive in the non-volatile memory.

While the invention has been shown and described with reference tocertain exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understood by thoseskilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be madetherein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention asdefined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for transmitting and receiving data by aNear Field Communication (NFC) manager in a NFC environment, the methodcomprising: reading a first NFC Data Exchange Format (NDEF) message froma NFC tag embedded in a NFC agent; checking a direction flag in acontrol field of the first NDEF message; and writing a second NDEFmessage in which the direction flag indicates that the second NDEFmessage is directed to the NFC agent.
 2. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: determining whether the direction flag of the first NDEFmessage indicates that the NFC agent communicates with another device;and if the direction flag of the first NDEF message indicates that theNFC agent communicates with the other device, terminating an NFCcommunication with the NFC agent.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein thedirection flag of the first NDEF message indicates that the first NDEFmessage is directed to NFC manager.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein,if the direction flag is 0, a corresponding NDEF message is directed tothe NFC manager.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein, if the directionflag is 1, a corresponding NDEF message is directed to the NFC agent. 6.The method of claim 1, wherein the control field further includes arequest/response flag and a status flag.
 7. The method of claim 6,wherein the status flag indicates a status of the NFC communication. 8.The method of claim 6, further comprising determining whether therequest/response flag corresponds to 0 or 1, wherein, if therequest/response flag corresponds to 0, a corresponding NDEF messageincludes an ISO/IEEE 11073-20601 protocol request command, and wherein,if the request/response flag corresponds to 1, the corresponding NDEFmessage includes an ISO/IEEE 11073-20601 protocol response command.
 9. ANear Field Communication (NFC) manager for transmitting and receivingdata in a NFC environment, the NFC manager comprising: a communicationinterface; and a processor configured to: read a first NFC Data ExchangeFormat (NDEF) message from a NFC tag embedded in an NFC agent, check adirection flag in a control field of the first NDEF message, and write asecond NDEF message in which the direction flag indicates that thesecond NDEF message is directed to the NFC agent.
 10. The NFC manager ofclaim 9, wherein the processor is further configured to: determinewhether the direction flag of the first NDEF message indicates that theNFC agent communicates with another device, and if the direction flag ofthe first NDEF message indicates that the NFC agent communicates withthe other device, terminate an NFC communication.
 11. The NFC manager ofclaim 9, wherein the direction flag of the first NDEF message indicatesthat the first NDEF message is directed to NFC manager.
 12. The NFCmanager of claim 9, wherein, if the direction flag is 0, a correspondingNDEF message is directed to the NFC manager.
 13. The NFC manager ofclaim 9, wherein, if the direction flag is 1, a corresponding NDEFmessage is directed to the NFC agent.
 14. The NFC manager of claim 9,wherein the control field further includes a request/response flag and astatus flag.
 15. The NFC manager of claim 14, wherein the status flagindicates a status of the NFC communication.
 16. The NFC manager ofclaim 14, wherein the processor is further configured to determinewhether the request/response flag corresponds to 0 or 1, wherein, if therequest/response flag corresponds to 0, a corresponding NDEF messageincludes an ISO/IEEE 11073-20601 protocol request command, and wherein,if the request/response flag corresponds to 1, the corresponding NDEFmessage includes an ISO/IEEE 11073-20601 protocol response command.